Agbo recognized by Pacific University

Friday

Pacific University honored its 2018 Alumni Association Awards recipients, including Smyrna resident Peter Agbo, at a ceremony Oct. 19 as part of the university’s annual homecoming festivities.

Agbo received the Emerging Leader Award, which recognizes Pacific alumni who demonstrate leadership in their vocation, community service or service to the university.

A Nigeria native and Smyrna resident, Agbo provides health services for the underserved in Africa. Agbo grew up in Nigeria and earned his doctor in pharmacy from Pacific in 2009. He went on to earn a master’s degree in public health and a medical doctor degree from the American International School of Medicine Guyana. He is employed by Bayhealth Medical Center in Delaware. Each year since 2011, Agbo has traveled to Nigeria to deliver health care services and supplies to underserved people.

He co-founded a charity with a friend and neurosurgeon to deliver medical care and services to people in Nigeria. In December, Abgo and friend David Asuzu will take a team of physicians and other medical personnel to provide free care to more than 1,000 people during a two-week visit to the city of Ikom, close to the border with Cameroon. This year, they expect many of those served will be refugees fleeing from war in neighboring Cameroon. They will do everything from dispense vitamins to perform surgeries for those who have been injured or haven’t been served by the local medical system.

Poor people in this part of sub-Saharan Africa don’t get regular medical attention. As a consequence, Agbo said, many have diabetes, high blood pressure or aren’t receiving routine care while pregnant. Agbo said he and Asuzu remain committed to the project to bring advanced health care to underserved people in the region where they grew up.

The coming trip will bring new medical challenges and different kinds of patients, said Agbo. “I can’t wait to see them.”